Friday, 15 February 2008
A few pictures
These pictures represent 1. my lactating daughters plus Adam who is completely pissed off at not being the center of attention. 2. Harry and Rosie in Rosie's pram. Harry says, "Get me out of this frill ridden pink nightmare." Rosie says, "Who is this gross, redheaded boy person contaminating my beautiful pram." 3. Harry at his sweetest.
Thursday, 14 February 2008
Passport saga
Guess what turned up in my letter box two days ago? All the passport renewal information that I had slaved over the week before. The faulty item was my birth certificate. I've had to send to Nova Scotia for the real thing. When that comes, I start all over again. I'm cutting it fine for getting the new passport before the old one runs out. Once again it is no one's fault but my own. I should have been doing this at the beginning of January. I just hope no out of country emergency occurs before I'm sorted.
Catching up
It has been pointed out to me that I have fallen behind in my blog posting activities. It's pure laziness. Alison and Harry were here last week while the house move from Eastbourne to Brighton was taking place. I had a great week. It was a treat for me to have someone in the house and Harry is a super little baby. We went to Brighton on Saturday having given Sian and her Mum plenty of time to unpack and get the house ready for us to walk in, sit down, and have a cup of tea. The house is a spacious Victorian terrace with lots of light. It is well placed for shops and parks. They plan to be in it for about twenty years. Harry has his own room with his own bed.
Thursday, 31 January 2008
Passport Application
I finally sent the thing off today but not without the usual mishaps. The way I'm operating, I should be a blonde. I have doubts about some of the essential bits that went in but mostly I'm worried that I might have sent it to the wrong address! Time will tell and for now I'm putting it out of my mind. Two friends came to lunch today. A very civilized lady's gathering. I do like seeing my friends and appreciate it when one of them is prepared to make the drive from Kenilworth. The girls and the fox arrive tomorrow. I'm pretty thrilled and excited. Unfortunately, the forecast is for very cold weather with the possibility of snow. I want to take that little fellow out in the pram and show him off to my neighbours. I thought we could go to Nigel's coffee morning on Saturday and the local elders could admire his red headed cuteness. I get to babysit on Saturday evening when the girls go out for a meal and a break. He sleeps very well now after 7pm so I won't be able to get him up to play with him. Or will I? They won't know. I could say he woke up on his own.
Tuesday, 29 January 2008
I hate paperwork
It is so easy to postpone the paperwork until it piles up to a point where you have no choice but to get on with it. That is my situation with regard to my Passport renewal. You would think it was fairly straightforward. Not so. First of all, Canada requires renewal every five years and the pictures they want seem to involve a million little stupid specifications. The plus side of that is that you rapidly stop moaning about how god awful you look as you desperately try to work out how many millimeters your chin is from the top of your head. Then you need your Birth Certificate. After much searching, you find it but it looks dodgy. Never mind, it will have to do. They also want my Marriage License. That's fine. I guess I don't need it any more! Then there is the guarantor and the witnesses. When I finally get the new passport, it won't have my British Right of Abode stamp in it so I may well run into trouble "aboding" in the UK. Life was easier when I had a secretary.
The second big problem is one of which I am very ashamed. I find myself whining and complaining about the hard work involved in managing money. Just think of it. I am so lucky to have money to moan about but I guess everything is relative. I spent most of last week opening and closing accounts all over the place. This involved many telephone calls and e-mails. I'm finally getting there but only after taking Alison's advice to hire some help. As she is fond of saying, "Mum, you have money but you don't have time. You need staff." So I'm meeting tomorrow with My Financial Advisor. He is going to cost me a fortune but he makes house calls and I like him. I never realized how hopeless I was at looking after my own affairs. I can do a dinner party for 12 without breaking a sweat but start talking to me about stocks and shares and I'm a wreck.
Fortunately, Alison, Sian and The Fox are coming to Oxford at the weekend. It will be Harry's first look at the dreaming spires. The whole family is coming for lunch on Sunday including Vanessa. Chloe is going to spend Saturday night so that she will be here on Sunday morning to help with the preparations. She is a very good cook and a dab hand with a corkscrew.
The second big problem is one of which I am very ashamed. I find myself whining and complaining about the hard work involved in managing money. Just think of it. I am so lucky to have money to moan about but I guess everything is relative. I spent most of last week opening and closing accounts all over the place. This involved many telephone calls and e-mails. I'm finally getting there but only after taking Alison's advice to hire some help. As she is fond of saying, "Mum, you have money but you don't have time. You need staff." So I'm meeting tomorrow with My Financial Advisor. He is going to cost me a fortune but he makes house calls and I like him. I never realized how hopeless I was at looking after my own affairs. I can do a dinner party for 12 without breaking a sweat but start talking to me about stocks and shares and I'm a wreck.
Fortunately, Alison, Sian and The Fox are coming to Oxford at the weekend. It will be Harry's first look at the dreaming spires. The whole family is coming for lunch on Sunday including Vanessa. Chloe is going to spend Saturday night so that she will be here on Sunday morning to help with the preparations. She is a very good cook and a dab hand with a corkscrew.
Sunday, 27 January 2008
Back in the Bucket
My Mummies will insist on the bath in the bucket routine. When they are old and decrepid, I'm going to buy a large bucket and make them bathe in it!!
My Grandma was here last weekend. She did nice things like give me a bottle, praise me when I burped and take me for refreshing walks in my new pram. I can tell she loves me.
Tuesday, 15 January 2008
Writing Class
My homework for tomorrow is to outline two plots for novels. Here they are.
15 January 2008
Mrs. Edwards Sorts the Family
Introduction: a happily married couple of 35 years. Having breakfast. Reading the paper and commenting on some of their children in relation to newspaper items. Husband retired. Wife still working part time as a speech therapist.
Rising Action: husband goes off to buy airconditioning unit for his study. He has a car accident. What is the outcome of this? He ends up in hospital severely injured. Wife goes to visit him. Son turns up. Children living away are notified and they turn up. Wife is going about in a daze. Children are worried about her. Everyone’s back story gets told through flashbacks in deathbed scenes with Dad. Dad dies after five days.
Crisis: All four children worried about what to do with mother. Mother announces after the cremation that she will be spending three months with each of her children in turn. Children are knocked sideways but feel that they can’t refuse. She makes it clear that she will not be with any one of them for more than their allotted three months. She says that they will all meet up back at the family home in one year’s time.
Falling Action: She starts her visits within a week and the next section of the book is about these three month visits. Each one could have its own crisis. Each little family has its own problems which she attempts to set right. This leads to conflict and the realization that you cannot fix other people and they cannot fix you. She comes away knowing herself much better.
Conclusion: A year later, the family meets up and the mother presents each one with a small jar with some of Dad’s ashes. They are each to scatter them according to how they think best. She saves a larger share for herself and announces that she will be taking them to her husbands homeland, South Africa, where she will scatter them.
Raising Annie
Introduction: A woman in her early 30’s is complaining to her husband about her lousy upbringing. She itemizes all the things her parents did and didn’t do to make her childhood a bad one. These are not instances of abuse or neglect, just the run of the mill criticism and lots of moaning. Her husband seems to agree with her. They are a childless couple.
Rising Action: The woman finds out that she could be a subject in a cloning experiment. She looks into it and agrees to do it as long as she can have the child that is produced. A baby is created which is an exact clone and she is given permission to raise it as her own. This is her dream come true. She can raise herself and undo all the mistakes her own parents made.
Crisis: Many incidents can be recounted during the ‘bringing up’ years. It leads in the end to the husband taking the child’s side against the mother to try to save the child from the influences of this woman who has gone bonkers. Can he do this without telling the child that she is a clone?
Falling Action: Many changes have to be made for this child to grow up in any kind of natural way. The parents, especially Mum, must rethink their lives and their choices.
Conclusion: Haven’t worked that out yet. Child grows up well and they live happily ever after? Child runs away? Parents live a life of regret?
I'm not sure which of the two to settle on. The first one would be easier because it is autobiographical, sort of. I know all the characters. The second one would be more interesting in a way but I would have to find out about cloning. I know you can't clone humans yet but I could pretend. Any comments are welcome.
15 January 2008
Mrs. Edwards Sorts the Family
Introduction: a happily married couple of 35 years. Having breakfast. Reading the paper and commenting on some of their children in relation to newspaper items. Husband retired. Wife still working part time as a speech therapist.
Rising Action: husband goes off to buy airconditioning unit for his study. He has a car accident. What is the outcome of this? He ends up in hospital severely injured. Wife goes to visit him. Son turns up. Children living away are notified and they turn up. Wife is going about in a daze. Children are worried about her. Everyone’s back story gets told through flashbacks in deathbed scenes with Dad. Dad dies after five days.
Crisis: All four children worried about what to do with mother. Mother announces after the cremation that she will be spending three months with each of her children in turn. Children are knocked sideways but feel that they can’t refuse. She makes it clear that she will not be with any one of them for more than their allotted three months. She says that they will all meet up back at the family home in one year’s time.
Falling Action: She starts her visits within a week and the next section of the book is about these three month visits. Each one could have its own crisis. Each little family has its own problems which she attempts to set right. This leads to conflict and the realization that you cannot fix other people and they cannot fix you. She comes away knowing herself much better.
Conclusion: A year later, the family meets up and the mother presents each one with a small jar with some of Dad’s ashes. They are each to scatter them according to how they think best. She saves a larger share for herself and announces that she will be taking them to her husbands homeland, South Africa, where she will scatter them.
Raising Annie
Introduction: A woman in her early 30’s is complaining to her husband about her lousy upbringing. She itemizes all the things her parents did and didn’t do to make her childhood a bad one. These are not instances of abuse or neglect, just the run of the mill criticism and lots of moaning. Her husband seems to agree with her. They are a childless couple.
Rising Action: The woman finds out that she could be a subject in a cloning experiment. She looks into it and agrees to do it as long as she can have the child that is produced. A baby is created which is an exact clone and she is given permission to raise it as her own. This is her dream come true. She can raise herself and undo all the mistakes her own parents made.
Crisis: Many incidents can be recounted during the ‘bringing up’ years. It leads in the end to the husband taking the child’s side against the mother to try to save the child from the influences of this woman who has gone bonkers. Can he do this without telling the child that she is a clone?
Falling Action: Many changes have to be made for this child to grow up in any kind of natural way. The parents, especially Mum, must rethink their lives and their choices.
Conclusion: Haven’t worked that out yet. Child grows up well and they live happily ever after? Child runs away? Parents live a life of regret?
I'm not sure which of the two to settle on. The first one would be easier because it is autobiographical, sort of. I know all the characters. The second one would be more interesting in a way but I would have to find out about cloning. I know you can't clone humans yet but I could pretend. Any comments are welcome.
Friday, 11 January 2008
Harry again
This is Harry in his bucket. It is a trendy baby bath about which he seems just a trifle unsure.
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